News in Brief

Gas Company speaks on ‘inferior’ gas plant

The Chief Executive of the Ghana Gas Company, Dr Sipa Yankey has stated that his outfits is working around the clock together with the finest locally source expertise to complete the gas project by the end of the year.

According to the Ghana gas company the country’s oil wells stands risks risk of damage if processing plant faced any delays.

The Gas Components of Ghana’s oil fields are currently being reinjected into wells because the country lacks the infrastructure to process the gas.

However, the government in its determination to commercialise the country’s gas resources, incorporated the Ghana gas company in July 2011, to build and operate gas infrastructure required for the processing and marketing of country’s gas potentials.

Speaking to a section of the media in Accra yesterday, Dr Sipa Yankey note that the company was following strict standards to ensure that the project is delivered on time and of high technical standards.

Dr Sipa Yankey in an obvious reaction to the chronicle’s earlier story which questioned the modalities for procurements for the project, where the paper pointed out elements which smacked of conflict of interest on the part of the company executing the project, explained thus:

“The project execution is led by a global consortium headed by Sinopec, under an engineering procurement construction commissioning contract. This places the responsibility for engineering supervision and sub- contracting for works and goods on the leader of the consortium (Sinopec)”.

Checks by the chronicle indicate that one of the directors of the project executing company is also a director of a company which is currently supplying goods and services to the contracting company.

But Dr Sipa Yankey explained that the project “is a turnkey project and Ghana gas has no responsibility in the selection of sub contractor’s in the execution of works”.

On issues raised earlier by the chronicle to the effect that the pipe lines for the project have not been coated, which has raised eye brows among industry experts who say the standards are not up to the project specification, Dr Sipa Yankey explained that:

“… Inspection was conducted by Ghana gas consultants with respect to the manufacturing procedures and the subsequent quality test and inspection process for the line pipes.”

He added that both the manufacturing and testing procedures were found to be consistent with applicable international codes and standards.

“The manufacturing process and test as well as the qualifications of the personnel were subsequently certified by Bureau Veritas (BV) in June 2012, before the pipes were shipped. Ghana gas also contracted Velosi Corp., a reputable quality inspection company to perform QA/QC inspection of the pipes on arrival at the port,” he explained further.

85 per cent of the $1m gas processing project is funded by the $3m loan Ghana contracted from the Chinese development bank while 15 per cent is funded by the government of Ghana.

The project is focused on gas monetisation by adding value and providing natural gas to markets to accelerate the nation’s effort of rapid industrialisation.

The company explained that the media encounter was part of the company’s efforts to operate a transparent and open door policy to make information readily available to the general public, but this laudable idea was challenged at birth when the Corporate Affairs Director of the Ghana gas company, Mr Guree Brown Guree exhibited what company’s who run an opaque policy do.

During interactions which some key members of the company, such as the chief executive of the Ghana gas company, virtually interrupted the friendly discussions that some media personnel were having with the CEO, with whom they were having with the CEO, with whom they were having some fruitful discussions.

The only explanation form Mr. Guree for his over protective behaviour was that he “has” a duty to perform.

Reporting Oil and Gas project was launched on 4th June 2009atTakoradi, Western Region, Ghana by Penplusbytes (PPB – www.penplusbytes.org) with the vision of providing a one stop online information and knowledge about Ghana’s oil and gas sector

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Reporting Oil and Gas project was launched on 4th June 2009 at Takoradi, Western Region, Ghana by Penplusbytes (www.penplusbytes.org) with the vision of providing a one stop online information and knowledge about Ghana’s oil and gas sector
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